The Douglas County School District board tabled a plan early Wednesday to extend STEM School Highlands Ranch’s contract by one year, in the hope the district and school can reach an agreement in a week-and-a-half.

The school’s current contract with the district is scheduled to expire June 30, and if the two parties can’t reach an agreement by then, the board will have to meet to consider an 11th-hour extension.

The room was completely full when the school board meeting began at 6 p.m. Tuesday in Castle Rock, with many people in the audience wearing white T-shirts with the #STEMStrong hashtag, showing support for the school in the wake of the May 7 shooting that left one student dead and eight others injured. Most seats were still filled after midnight, when the board began discussing how to handle the impending deadline.

The board had voted in January to reauthorize the school’s charter for three years, but STEM and the district hadn’t reached a final agreement. STEM executive director Penny Eucker had sought a five-year authorization, which she said, in emails to district officials, would make it easier for the school to borrow money.

The board had prepared an order allowing STEM to continue operating as one of its charter schools through the end of June 2020, cutting the three-year extension down to one year. The board resolution said questions about student safety hadn’t been resolved, and extending the charter one year would allow the district to make an informed decision.

The proposed order also called for STEM to train counselors on threat assessment, and complete assessments in a timely way; review safety data supplied by the district; report data about student attendance and behavior; refrain from spending per-pupil money on new schools; hire licensed mental health and special education staff; require all staff to complete safety training; provide transparent financial information; administer regular parent, student and staff satisfaction surveys; and complete a strategic plan.

Heidi Elliott, a STEM School board member, told the Douglas County school board that the resolution feels like an effort to “control” the school and signals that district doesn’t trust STEM.

“It feels like you’re putting STEM on probation,” she said. “If you want to set policy for STEM, come and run for our board.”

Elliott urged the board to toss out its resolution, approve a five-year reauthorization and eliminate its list of conditions. A short authorization time will destroy the school’s bond rating, and the conditions will distract administrators from serving students, she said.

After more than two hours of public comment, board president David Ray said the board could “soften the language” of the conditions and treat them as items to negotiate when the district and school work on a long-term contract.

“I’m struggling with that, that we were that close” to reaching an agreement before the shooting, he said.

The board unanimously voted for the plan, though board secretary Krista Holtzmann and member Kevin Leung expressed reservations. Holtzmann said she had concerns about the STEM contract when the board voted to reauthorize the charter for three years in January, and has more unresolved questions since the shooting.

“I had specific concerns for students of STEM. Those concerns have not been resolved,” she said.

Amy Settle, who has a daughter going into fifth grade at STEM, said the school helped her shy child find a place where she fit in. Parents will demand accountability from the school, but the district’s plan would harm students by lowering the school’s bond rating, she said.

“I don’t want the school board to compound the tragedy… by setting a ticking time bomb into motion,” she said.

Board vice president Wendy Vogel said the intent was never to put the school in jeopardy, but to create some breathing room to negotiate a long-term contract.

“If we do nothing at all, STEM would be in a lot worse position” when the charter expires, she said.

The crowd’s mood grew ugly as the meeting passed the six-hour mark, with parents screaming at Leung after he said STEM administrators needed to cooperate in negotiations, with one man calling Leung a “narcissist.”

Most members of the public who spoke urged the district to abandon the resolution. One speaker, Gregg McGough, said the school should be praised for a quick response on the day of the shooting, but said he’s concerned the school’s leadership hasn’t taken responsibility for the death of Kendrick Castillo and the wounding of the other students. He urged the district to pursue an independent investigation.

“These children should not be heroes. They should be children,” he said, referring to witness accounts that Castillo and two other students charged one of the shooters. School leadership “used their deaths, injuries and bravery as a marketing tool.”

Ahead of the meeting, Eucker, the school’s executive director, sent a letter to parents defending STEM School’s record on safety, academic achievement and inclusion of students with disabilities and LBGTQ students.

“To send a signal that the district is not more supportive of STEM only makes the challenges for the STEM community more onerous. But it will not weaken our resolve. We are and will remain STEMStrong,” Eucker wrote.

Eucker reported the school will once again have a full-time school resource officer from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in the coming school year, and will continue to use a private security guard. She also pushed back against anonymous complaints suggesting the school had a high-pressure culture, and said parents of middle and high school students didn’t corroborate the allegations when surveyed about them.

“The vast majority of students reported their stress was well-controlled and that they were able to complete their homework at school, during the school day. Those who report concerns in this regard are provided additional support and resources for learning to manage stress, which is of course an important life skill,” she wrote. “There was absolutely no indication, from this anonymous complaint or any other source, to suggest any increased risk for the events of May 7, 2019.”

The district also announced it would draw down about $429,000 from reserves to add seven school resource officers next year, putting an SRO in every traditional middle school. All the traditional high schools already have a police officer.

Vogel thanked the finance staff for finding with money for more officers. She and Ray had said the budget approved in May didn’t include matching funds for adding more school resource officers, frustrating Douglas County commissioners who had voted to contribute toward bringing more cops into schools.

“Thank you for proving me wrong,” she said.

Kory Nelson, whose daughter attends Legend High School, said he thinks a large campus with 3,000 students needs more security.

“I contend that one SRO is not enough,” he said.

Updated 11:20 a.m. June 19, 2019This story has been corrected to indicate how much time the Douglas County School District and STEM School Highlands Ranch have left to reach an agreement on a new charter contract.

Meg Wingerter came to Denver from The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, where she covered health. She previously worked at Kansas News Service, The Topeka (Kansas) Capital-Journal and The Muskegon (Michigan) Chronicle. She grew up in Pennsylvania and attended Michigan State University.

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